Polypogon^ GraminecB. 259 



specimens) and palea all pilose with spreading hairs, I and II 

 separately deciduous. 



Damp places in the moist tropical region. Colombo, Hantane, Reigam 

 Korale. 



Also in Bengal, Burma, Singapore, and China. 



A very singular little grass, of doubtful affinity, with the habit or" a 

 diminutive state of Panicum ovalifolium, and the foliage and deciduous 

 empty glumes of Isachne. The spikelets are amongst the most minute 

 of grasses ; they are hairy in Ceylon specimens, but glabrous in some 

 Indian. 



46. POLYPOGON, Desf. 

 Annual or perennial, soft grasses, stem erect ; 1. flat; 

 spikelets minute, i-fld., articulate on their pedicels, laterally 

 compressed, densely crowded on the short branches of a 

 spiciform silky panicle; rhachilla not produced beyond glume 

 III, naked; glumes 3, I and II empty, equal, linear-oblong, 

 keeled, pubescent and ciliate, terminated by long capillary 

 awns ; III much smaller, articulate at the base, hyaline, 

 truncate, awned, palea as long as the glume, hyaline, truncate, 

 2-veined ; stam. 1-3, anth. short, styles distant at their bases, 

 short, stigmas narrowly plumose; grain clavately obovoid, 

 free within its glume. — Sp. few; 2 in FL B. Ind. 



P. monspeliensis, Desf. Fl. Atlant. i. 66 (1798). 



Thw. Enum. 370, 444. P. zeylanicus, Nees ex Steud. Syn. Gram. 183. 

 Agrostis panicea, Willd.; Moon, Cat. 8. C. P. 144. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 245. Beauv. Agrost. t. 6. f. 7. Reichb. Ic. Fl. Germ. i. 

 t. 31. 



Annual ; stems densely tufted, erect, 1-2 ft. high, rather 

 stout, smooth; 1. 6-20 by \-\ in., acuminate, flaccid, scaberu- 

 lous on both surfaces, narrowed to the base, midrib very 

 slender, sheaths rather inflated, smooth, upper very long, 

 ligule variable in length, oblong, scarious; spiciform panicle 

 erect, 3-6 in. long by \-\ in. diam., narrowly ovate-oblong or 

 cylindric, often lobulate, softly crinite, and glistening from 

 the erect awns ; spikelets (excl. awns) tt~to hi. long, sessile 

 or very shortly pedicelled on the branchlets of the panicle; 

 glumes I and II oblong, nearly white, tips rounded, terminated 

 by capillary erect awns about \ in. long, III not half as 

 long as I and II, broadly oblong, truncate and toothed at 

 the tip, 5 -veined, awn rather longer than the empty 

 glumes. 



Uva district. Caltura (Thwaites), Adam's Peak, Haputale, and Hak- 

 gala (Trimen). Probably introduced. Infl. pale green or silvery. 

 All temp, and warm regions. 



